


Permanent Insomnia

by FleaBee



Series: Too Many Challenges [4]
Category: Red Dwarf
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-24
Updated: 2018-06-24
Packaged: 2019-05-27 15:26:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15027572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FleaBee/pseuds/FleaBee
Summary: "I'm not suffering from normal insomnia," Rimmer confessed.





	Permanent Insomnia

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt from https://prompt-bank.tumblr.com/post/152084082678/drabble-challenge  
> Prompt 31 “I haven’t slept in ages.”

Anytime Lister went to bed Rimmer would be sitting there awake still talking to him when he drifted off. It was now nice listening to Rimmer as he drifted off to sleep. When he'd met Rimmer all those years ago, he never thought he would have grown to like listening to his bunkmate ramble. When he woke up, Rimmer was sitting at the table or already out of the room for the day. He just always seemed to be awake whenever he went to bed and got up, and something was comforting knowing that Rimmer was the last and first thing he saw most days. He briefly wondered if this whatever he and Rimmer have was what it was like to be married. It was just comfortable and familiar whatever he and Rimmer now had.

It was the middle of the night, well not really the middle of the night, early morning but a time that Lister wasn't usually awake. A time Rimmer wasn't typically awake either. He looked over the edge of the bed expecting to finally see Rimmer asleep. Instead, he saw him in his pyjamas, leaning against the wall of his bunk reading one of his holobooks with the display lighting up his face slightly.

"Couldn't sleep?" Lister asked the hologram.

Rimmer looked slightly relieved as Lister spoke, putting his book down before he spoke. "No, I couldn't sleep."

"Reading isn't working?" Lister asked. He knew that was something Rimmer would sometimes do, read until he fell asleep when he was overstressed, usually from exams.

"Reading myself to sleep hasn't worked for a long time," Rimmer admitted, "I haven't slept in ages."

"Wha, really. If you mentioned something, I would've helped you find a way to sleep. I once had this girlfriend, her name was Liz. She suffered from terrible insomnia."

"Lister, you can't do anything to help me. I'm not suffering from insomnia, at least not normal insomnia," Rimmer muttered.

"What do you mean I can't help? Course I can help. How long have you been suffering from insomnia?" Upside down leaning over the edge of the bed, Lister carefully watched Rimmer's reaction.

"I don't suffer from insomnia," Rimmer replied turning an interesting shade of red, one that Lister didn't actually see often anymore, but if he didn't know better he'd say this was embarrassed and not red from humiliated or anger that he usually saw.

"Course you are, man, you aren't sleeping so that must be insomnia."

Rimmer put his book away, moving from his bed to the coffee table, so Lister didn't have to look over the edge of the bed. He was grateful for that since he was getting dizzy from the blood rushing to his head.

"Lister, it's not insomnia, well not normal insomnia. I guess it can be called that since I'm not sleeping. I'm not suffering from normal insomnia." Rimmer chewed on his bottom lip, and his legs jittered for several moments. Lister waited knowing that Rimmer was trying to work out what to say. He gave him the time that he wouldn't of when they were both younger.

Rimmer finally started speaking. "The sleep program doesn't work anymore. I can't sleep. The codes all corrupted and Kryten and I haven't been able to fix it yet. We've tried a few things, and it ended up corrupting other parts of my program."

Lister looked at the hologram, no wonder he'd been moodier recently and been sticking around him more in the daylight hours, more annoying than usual well these days, nowhere as near irritating as when Rimmer first became a hologram but still annoying for recent years. Rimmer had not been giving him any space during his waking hours and no wonder why, Rimmer was spending hours alone while Lister slept, Cat did his own thing, and Kryten charged. No wonder why he'd been offering to cover the cockpit shifts during the night more often and swapping them out for his day shifts and was still around in the day anyway. He'd be up anyway so he probably thought he may as well do something useful. It wasn't every night perhaps because he still needed some form of downtime which he was getting by reading.

"How long has the program been broken?" Lister asked. He couldn't think of when it started. He didn't know. Rimmer had gradually become more clingy that he just couldn't place when it had happened. He'd noticed two months ago but who knew if it was longer or not.

Rimmer picked up his journal from the bedside table. Flipping through it before putting it back and grabbing another journal from a hidey hole Lister hadn't seen before. "Seven months, twenty days."

"Months, you haven't slept in months, and you didn't say anything. How are you able to function? Sleeps very important."

"Lister, I don't need sleep. The early holograms didn't sleep at all. It was only programmed in to make holograms feel more human. For their sanity in the early days of being a hologram. I was worried about going insane at first, but it hasn't affected me anywhere near as much as the early holograms. You can ask Kryten if you don't believe me. He's been making sure I'm as healthy as I can be considering. I don't mind not being able to sleep, I feel energetic at all times now."

"Must get lonely."

"It was at first," Rimmer admitted. "I was so angry that I couldn't sleep, it was so frustrating before I knew why I couldn't sleep. After I grew used to not sleeping, it's given me a lot more revising time. I've caught up on my reading, and I can watch the cockpit without getting bored or falling asleep.”

“Without getting bored?” Lister raised an eyebrow.

“Alright I still get bored, but I don’t fall asleep from boredom like I used to,” Rimmer admitted.

"Hey, if you ever get really lonely during the night just wake me up." Lister offered.

Rimmer smiled at the offer appreciating it even though he wouldn't take Lister up on it. "Unlike me, you need the sleep Listy, even if you don't think so. I am not going to wake you just because I am lonely. I don't expect you to stay up and keep me company. If I really want company during the night, I will take Kryten off charge. Which I have done a few times. I've spent several nights with Cat since he likes hunting during the night. I've been helping him find space weevil infestations."

Lister had noticed Rimmer and Cat seemed to be getting along better these days. He just thought it was Cat finally warming up to Rimmer, which he guessed he was.

"And we'll find a way to get you sleeping again," Lister promised.

"Lister, it honestly doesn't matter anymore. There are more important things on the ship that need looking at first." Rimmer said, and he meant it as well. He really didn't mind the glitch. He'd grown used to the glitches of his holographic status.

"But if that program has corrupted, what other programs on your lightbee are no longer working? Doesn't mean that you're breaking down as well?" Lister asked with horror that he somehow managed to mostly keep out of his voice. Something that would have set Rimmer into an anxiety attack years ago. Rimmer had grown up and matured, and he hadn't even noticed until that moment. And here he was still stuck as he had been twenty years ago.

"You can't expect three-million-year-old hardware to just keep working. I don't want to be around forever. I've had a good death, Lister. I'll still be around until you are dead even with these hiccups along the way. If you're done talking you should go back to sleep, I want to finish reading this book before my shift starts in half an hour."

"Night Rimmer, sleep well," Lister said before remembering what they were just talking about. "I mean, I forgot that you can't sleep." He added sheepishly.

"Lister, just go to sleep. You don't have to change what you say to me before you go to bed. It makes me feel human when you wish me a good night sleep. Please keep wishing me a good night's sleep." Rimmer practically begged him.

"I meant what I said about getting you over your insomnia, might take a while but well get there, night Rimsy," Lister said while settling himself back into bed, falling asleep immediately.


End file.
